Hold On, Hold On
by The Pale Bride
Summary: Seven drabbles about Strega's time in the Kirijo labs, and their bonds with each other. Somehow, they managed to hold on. :: Strega gen with some Takaya/Jin on the side
1. close your eyes

**Disclaimer:** Persona 3 isn't mine. I just like playing in ATLUS' sandbox.

**Warning: All drabbles contain spoilers through 1/31.**

**close your eyes**

Some of the kids are good at hiding, but Takaya is always easy to find - nine times out of ten, he's sleeping.

In bed, tangled up with Chidori and Jin, or sprawled all over the sticky-plastic couches, or head pillowed on his arms at the breakfast table; Takaya sleeps enough for three people, which is fortunate, because the other two often can't sleep at all.

But he's always awake when midnight slips into _something else_ - easing the transition with a word, a hug, and, sometimes, jagged fragments of lullaby for two children raised too wild to know the difference.


	2. i believe in you

**Disclaimer:** Persona 3 isn't mine. I just like playing in ATLUS' sandbox.

**Warnings:** Drugs, vomit.

**i believe in you**

The drugs burn like fire in Jin's veins, and when they make him sick that's like fire, too, burning his throat and mouth on the way back up. There's no relief, no escape from the feeling of being incinerated from the inside out -

Except Takaya.

Takaya's hands are cool against his feverish skin, and his whispers of encouragement are like water drowning the flames. He kneels beside Jin on the bathroom floor and rubs his back when he pukes his guts out, and Jin wonders, sometimes, if this is what parents are meant to do.

_Is this what "love" is?_


	3. easy to find what's wrong

**Disclaimer:** Persona 3 isn't mine. I just like playing in ATLUS' sandbox.

**Warnings:** Language, violence.

**easy to find what's wrong**

"Shut up," Chidori whispers, hands over her ears, when the screaming starts, "just _shut up_," but no one ever listens.

"Fucking Kirijo," Jin snaps. "Fucking lowlife _maggots_," earning him a kick from an offended employee in the shin or the side, but never, ever any quiet.

Takaya never says anything at all.

He pets Chidori's hair until the tension eases from her shoulders; holds ice packs to Jin's bruises until the pain fades. But he does it all in silence.

(The silence doesn't end the screaming, but neither does anything else, so maybe Takaya is the wisest of them all.)


	4. harder to find what's right

**Disclaimer:** Persona 3 isn't mine. I just like playing in ATLUS' sandbox.

**Warnings:** Language, symbolism.

**harder to find what's right**

"Had that fucking _dream_ again."

"What dream?"

"With the robot - guess I only told Takaya. I keep dreaming about this... looks like a UFO with legs, always -"

"Always trying to kill you."

"...since when were you a mind-reader?"

"I think everyone here has those dreams. Something trying to destroy them... it's part of what the scientists want from us.

"Takaya's are about poppies."

"Figures. Playing right into their - wait, _poppies_? Takaya has nightmares about _flowers_?"

"Quiet, Jin."

"I'll take robots over girly shit like flowers any day. So what are yours about, Chidori?"

"...I wish I could dream about flowers."


	5. trembling, crawling

**Disclaimer:** Persona 3 isn't mine. I just like playing in ATLUS' sandbox.

**trembling, crawling**

When they met Chidori her hair was in a tangled braid, unkempt and ugly. "It takes too much time to wash," she said when they asked, with a shrug that added, _why bother?_

It was Takaya who bothered for her, washing her hair with hand soap in the bathroom sink, combing it out with his fingers. It flowered past her hips when he was done, a pretty peach-red rivaled only by her smile.

She didn't thank him. But after that day she grudgingly let Takaya tuck her under his wing.

And she still smiles whenever he brushes her hair.


	6. say goodbye

**Disclaimer:** Persona 3 isn't mine. I just like playing in ATLUS' sandbox.

**Warnings:** Self-harm.

**say goodbye**

Chidori will never understand the scientists' obsession with ensuring that only _they_ will hurt her.

She comes to them with nothing, like the ninety-nine others like her, but anything can be a weapon to those with enough determination. Scissors, broken glass - even _pens_ can cut as easily as any knife in the right hands, and she finds these things and turns them against, not her captors, but herself.

They take her weapons.

She scratches at her hands, leaving scabs, then ugly scars.

They cut her nails.

She _bites_ - draws blood.

Chidori may be broken, but she will _not_ be beaten.


	7. dance with the devil

**Disclaimer:** Persona 3 isn't mine. I just like playing in ATLUS' sandbox.

**Warnings:** Language, violence.

**dance with the devil**

The Evoker settles against Takaya's temple like it belongs there, and he grins through the gunshots instead of flinching away. He seems almost _at ease_ with this power.

The target of Hypnos' attacks isn't a Shadow - it's _Chidori_, who at least rocks back from the pain like a _sane_ person even if her expression is much too calm. Takaya calls this a mutually beneficial arrangement; a chance for him to test Hypnos' power, and Chidori, Medea's healing.

Jin calls this insane.

"This is _fucked up_, Takaya, c'mon -"

Lightning shoots out, lights up Chidori's eerie serenity, and neither of them _listens_.


End file.
